Round Dinner

I had a "dinner party" last weekend. That's in quotes because dinner party sounds like such formal affairs, which would be an incorrect description. Restated, I made dinner for my friends. The process of planning a menu was quite fun, even if the main goal was just to use as much stuff in my kitchen as possible. Since May is approaching, I'll be returning to my beloved California for summer break, and all the food in my kitchen needs to go before I leave. That'll actually be the theme for the next few posts.

Anyway, the theme for dinner ended up being circular stuff. Well, sort of. I got lazy and didn't make all the food that I planned on making, which was fine anyway because what I made was already more than enough. The full menu was supposed to be pita and carrot sticks with hummus for a snack, meatballs and pizza for substance, and panna cotta and lemon meringue pie for dessert. Oh, and salad, which isn't really round, but it's hard to shape salad, unless it's cucumber salad or something like that. In the end, I just made salad, pita chips, pizza, and pie. I wish I took pictures, but I was preoccupied with cooking, eating, and messing around with my friends. I also wish I had a circular table to match everything else.

I did, however, manage to get a picture of my lemon meringue pie, which happened to be one of the happier moments of my food preparation. The pie itself was not as exciting as the fact that I managed to get a stiff peak meringue. Do you know what that means? Time to try macarons again. Anyway, the lemon meringue pie recipe was adapted from here, but I thought the flavor to be a bit weak. I even doubled the lemon, and it still didn't come out lemony enough. I'm a fan of rather tart citrus pies, so I guess I'll have to search for another recipe. Aside from the lack of flavor, it wasn't too bad. I am incapable of rolling anything, so I used a no-roll pie crust recipe from here. I'm not sure if I'm incapable of making a no-roll crust also, but the crust was sort of short, and my filling and meringue ended up climbing higher than the top of the crust, which made taking slices out of the pie pan a little difficult. I guess I have to try making more pies in the future.